By The Associated Press
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- A retired U.S. general's claim that gay
Dutch soldiers were partly to blame for allowing Europe's worst massacre since
World War II has sparked outrage in the Netherlands.
Retired Gen. John Sheehan on Thursday told a Senate Armed Services Committee
hearing in Washington, D.C., that gay soldiers weakened the Dutch
army, which failed to prevent Serb forces massacring some 8,000 Muslim men in
the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995.
Dutch caretaker Defense Minister Eimert van Middelkoop said Friday the claim
was "damaging" and not worthy of a soldier. "I don't want to
waste any more words on it," he said.
Gen. Henk van den Breemen, Dutch Chief of Staff at the time of the
Srebrenica genocide, called Sheehan's comments "total nonsense."
 
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Dutch government
officials reacted angrily on Friday to claims by a retired U.S. general
that Dutch forces were overrun in Srebrenica in 1995 in
part because of the presence of gay soldiers.
At a U.S.
congressional hearing on Thursday on allowing gay soldiers to serve openly in
the military, former Supreme Allied Commander John Sheehan said there
was a link between having homosexuals in the Dutch forces and the massacre at
Srebrenica.
Bosnian Serb forces overran lightly armed Dutch soldiers in the United
Nations-designated enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995 and subsequently
massacred more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys.
Reports on the hearing said Sheehan blamed a post-Cold War effort by European nations to
"socialize" their forces by, among other things, letting gays serve.
"That led to a force that was ill-equipped to go to war. The case in
point that I'm referring to is when the Dutch were required to defend
Srebrenica against the Serbs," Sheehan said.
"The battalion was under-strength, poorly led, and the Serbs came into
town, handcuffed the soldiers to the telephone poles, marched the Muslims off,
and executed them."
Carl
Levin, chairman of the U.S. Senate's Armed Services Committee, asked:
"Did the Dutch leaders tell you it was because there were gay soldiers
there?"
"Yes, they did. They included that as part of the problem,"
Sheehan said, according to a webcast on the website of the Senate
Armed Services Committee.
"That there were gay soldiers?" Levin then asked.
"That the combination was the liberalization of the military, a net
effect was basically social engineering."
The Dutch Defence Ministry issued a statement calling Sheehan's claims "absolute nonsense" and
adding that gay Dutch soldiers routinely cooperate with the U.S. military in the NATO mission in Afghanistan.
Renee Jones-Bos, the Dutch ambassador to the United States, said in a statement,
"I couldn't disagree more" with Sheehan, adding there was no evidence
of his claims in the extensive record of research on Srebrenica.
Dutch press agency ANP quoted the head of the military union AFMP, Wim van
den Burg, as saying Sheehan's comments were "ridiculous" and
"out of the realm of fiction."
The events in Srebrenica remain a sensitive subject in the Netherlands,
where a six-year investigation into the massacre led to the government's fall
in 2002.
(Reporting by Ben Berkowitz; editing by Myra MacDonald)
And now, my comments:  I am amazed to what length those who fear homosexuality and hate Obama will go to stop the initiative to allow gays to serve in the military- to stop every initiative our President attempts.  Do these people not understand how much we are damaging our image and influence abroad by these blatant lies?  They don't care whom they hurt as long as the right wing regains political power.